“From one Irish American to another, I want to strive every day to live up to the example of President Reagan and Tip O’Neill,” McCarthy said, addressing the president.

Biden said he agreed with McCarthy that there’s no reason why “we can’t find common ground,” and he hopes that “we can turn this breakfast into more of an everyday relationship.”

“There’s no reason why we can’t hope to change this direction of extremism of both our parties,” Biden said, adding that it’s about the “power of friendship.”

Biden and McCarthy’s relationship this year has been marked by finding a path forward on raising the debt ceiling. In Biden’s State of the Union speech last month, he scolded Republicans about their past interest in cutting the nation’s biggest entitlement programs. Biden later met with McCarthy in search of a path to lifting the nation’s debt ceiling.